Leaders set examples for others to follow. Toyota, the world’s largest auto maker is doing just that in India. The Japanese auto maker has decided to shift focus towards making their cars safer and grab a niche spot for their products in every segment they represent the auto maker. As a part of this shift, all Toyota cars in India are being offered with airbags as a standard fitment, across all variants, since the beginning of 2015.
Toyota is aware about the Government working to amend the Motor Vehicles Act, which will make airbags to be fitted compulsorily on all cars sold in India. However, they realize that implementation of such a decision will take time, and in a matured manner, have taken the initiative themselves to focus on making their cars safer, rather than chasing volumes, keeping in view their long term goals for the Indian market.
Talking to reporters, Senior Vice-President and Director marketing and Sales Division for TKM said, “We want to bring safety and create awareness on it. Even the consumers are also beginning to realise the need for safety features now. So, we have started offering airbags as standard across all model range in all the variants of our vehicles since January.” He further added, “We want to be leaders in technology and safety. Our product prices have obviously gone up for sure but we don’t want to compromise on safety. Our aim is to offer value for money to our consumers. The small car market which is about 75 per cent of the car market is maturing. With awareness on safety issues increasing and regulations likely to come in future, in three to four years the market will move up and that is where we want to be prepared for.”
He also revealed that Toyota do not have any new models which will see launch this year, however, the process of adding refreshed variants to existing models will continue. Expecting the government to support the cause of eco-friendly vehicles in the country, he expects certain provisions to be made in the upcoming budget. Apparently, their recent launch, the Camry Hybrid has picked up sales from an earlier 10-15 units a month, to 70-75 units currently.